As residents call for action, Skokie prohibits ICE from village-owned property

The Skokie Board of Trustees was unanimous on Monday while taking a stance against local immigration enforcement.

The Village Board voted to amend its existing code and prohibit any warrant-less federal immigration operations on village-owned property.

The approved amendment to Chapter 58 of the Skokie’s code clarified what village-owned facilities — like buildings, parking lots and garages — are prohibited from being accessed for immigration enforcement purposes without a “valid” criminal warrant. 

The amendment also clarified what activities — like staging vehicles or personnel for the purpose of carrying out immigration enforcement — are prohibited from taking place on village-owned property. 

City Manager John Lockerby said staff are in the process of finalizing the language that will go on signs publicizing the updated policy, and the Skokie Public Works Department plans to install the signs on village-owned property by the end of this week. 

In the event people are concerned about witnessing Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities taking place in the village (which Mayor Ann Tennes addressed on Halloween, Oct. 31), Skokie Police Chief Jesse Barnes instructed individuals to call 911 and an officer supervisor will respond to the scene. 

Barnes explained, however, that officers will liaison with those on scene and prevent an escalation of force; the Skokie Police Department cannot guarantee they can get ICE officers to identify themselves or their activities.

The discussion over how village staff and residents can and should respond to ICE operations in Skokie took place after a local chapter of the nonprofit Indivisible coordinated a “Rally Against ICE in Skokie” that drew more than 100 people outside Village Hall before the meeting.

At the rally, a series of speakers addressed the crowd and used chalk to write the phone number for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a Chicago nonprofit, on the sidewalk. 

Bushra Amiwala, a Skokie School District 73.5 board member and candidate running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th District, said she’s heard from a Skokie resident whose father was “kidnapped by ICE” in Chicago and another whose husband was detained in nearby Rogers Park.

“Right now, families are being torn apart and our neighbors are being terrorized by ICE,” Amiwala said. “ … It is up to the local governments to resist because we are not powerless.”

Before the trustees discussed amending the village code, individuals took turns urging Skokie leaders to implement tangible measures against ICE’s operations and support many residents who expressed fear for their safety.

“Regular people are courageously doing everything they legally can to protect each other, risking their own safety and freedom,” resident Carrie Bradean said.

“I refuse to believe that the best our elected officials can do in the face of this racist, fascist assault on our community is to add a toothless sentence to an ordinance that these rogue agents will never read.”

Trustee Gail Schechter asked village staff whether they could add physical barriers, like locked gates, to its properties and whether staff could create anti-ICE signage available for the public to download and print from the village’s website to promote a visible sense of unity. 

While Lockerby said there’s “so much appeal” to adding barriers to village property, “it’s a very problematic logistical problem to implement” given Skokie’s more than 30 parking lots. 

Lockerby also said staff will need to have conversations with private partners in the community about providing a uniform anti-ICE sign for the public, as outside legal opinions reportedly advised the village creating those signs could lend a false sense of security to residents. 

Trustee Alison Pure Slovin cautioned the public against spreading misinformation as she’s aware of a synagogue’s private security personnel who were falsely identified as ICE agents on social media, which “put a target on the back of the synagogue.”

Barnes noted the Skokie Police Department will accept information on-scene to help document an instance of ICE in the village, but officers don’t have access to a database that will provide information about where detained individuals were taken.

“Information is not flowing in either direction” between local police and the federal authorities, he said.

In order to help figure out where a person detained by ICE was taken, individuals in the audience encouraged people to contact ICIRR at (855) 435-7693.

“We’re going to do our best to try and get answers in those situations, but I’m just trying to be mindful of not giving people false expectations,” Barnes said, adding that he is not aware of any instance of Skokie police interfacing with ICE agents this year as they typically leave the scene before officers arrive.

“I hope that there would be a respectful conversation between two parties but, once again, I can’t predict how they’re being instructed to handle those,” Barnes said of ICE agents.

Mayor Ann Tennes said there were a number of public “Know Your Rights” information sessions that took place after the first surprise apprehension of a Skokie resident took place in July.

Tennes echoed Trustee Lissa Levy’s remarks that the village needs to continue facilitating communication. 

“We are operating under a good will deficit at the moment and unfortunately that means we need to be working even harder to be forthright and proactive in our communication,” Levy said. “Not everybody comes to board meetings, not everybody reads ordinances.

“We need to find other ways that we are communicating with the community about what we’re doing and almost ad nauseam because we are reaching a fever pitch in our community where people are really freaked out,” Levy said.

Tennes added that Skokie is not alone in figuring out how to best respond to ICE. 

The mayor said she recently participated on a call with Lori Lightfoot, who is reportedly now involved with the new Illinois Office of Accountability, and other regional leaders about how municipalities can best navigate this unprecedented wave of immigration enforcement. 

“This isn’t just strong enforcement, this isn’t just aggressive enforcement by ICE, it’s hostile enforcement. And that’s what we’re seeing and that’s what our neighboring communities are seeing,” Tennes said.

“This is new for everybody.”